A ‘fashionable nobody’ transforms the home she bought with her husband in 2011

It’s hard to imagine now, but when the sellers bought this Manhattan home back in 2011, the Beekman Place townhouse was, according to listing agent Howard Margolis of Douglas Elliman Real Estate, “a complete disaster—and I mean disaster.” But it was nothing two-and-a-half years of renovations and an English interior designer’s sensibilities couldn’t remedy.

Mr. Margolis credits the transformation to the unwavering “vision” of Deborah Greatorex, who bought the home with her husband and renovated it with the help of architect Timothy Langan. After perusing the list of home improvements, calling the project a “gut renovation” doesn’t seem to cut it. While the brunt of the work took place on the inside, the house also benefited from a facelift or two.

As Margolis’s team puts it: Ms. Greatorex and Mr. Langan “turned it into a proper townhouse.”

The design duo gave the home a brand new façade, and elevated the entrance from street- to parlor-level by building a stoop, which created space for a garden. The back of the house was removed completely and replaced with mostly glass. They brought the kitchen down to the garden level and transformed the backyard into a 600-square-foot Japanese-inspired garden.

Design Pedigree

So who exactly is this industrious designer? In her own words, Ms. Greatorex, who goes by the Instagram handle @fashionpug, is “fashionably nobody!”

Her work on her family’s vacation home in Sicily has been highlighted in theNew York Times. Considering the Sicilian project included the construction of a swimming pool, tennis court, and a maze, this townhouse was presumably a piece of cake.

The Stats

The 6,500-square-foot townhouse has five bedrooms, five full bathrooms, and one partial bath.

Amenities

There’s nearly 1,200 square feet of outdoor space, which includes the gardens, a terrace, and a roof deck. The smart home is equipped with a Control4 Home Automation System, which features intercom, lighting controls, and HVAC controls. There are four gas fireplaces.

Neighborhood Notes

Beekman Place is synonymous with old money. (You’ve heard it mentioned as a code for wealth and power in Tom Wolfe’s novel “The Bonfire of the Vanities,” the Barbra Streisand flick “The Way We Were,” and Billy Joel’s “Close to the Borderline.”) Stretching from 49th to 51st streets, between First Avenue and the East River, the name has come to refer to the neighborhood that emanates from this tony two-block enclave.